Art-Making Activity: Paper Plate Fan
Learn about the different types of fans in China and Japan and get inspired to create your own!
INTRODUCTION
Throughout the world, people have been using handheld fans as cooling and ceremonial devices for thousands of years. Early fans were the fixed, or rigid type, not the folding fans you may think of today. Compare the two fans you see here. How are they alike? What makes them different?
The first fans were fixed or round, like the Japanese Noh Fan with Phoenix Birds seen on the right, using slender ribs covered in paper or silk and a single bamboo handle. Eventually, folding fans were introduced to China from Japan and this style gained popularity. Folding fans are composed of panels and ribs designed to rotate around a central point. The panels of these folding fans, like the one seen on the right, were typically made from paper, silk, and other fabrics. They would be painted with decorative scenes including animals, nature, and often included lines of poetry. The decoration on the fan often represented the interests of the artist or the owner.
Feeling inspired to create your own fan? Trying using items found at home to create a decorative fan that will keep you cool and share what is meaningful to you.
CREATE
Design your own fan using materials you have at home. Your fan will be a fixed fan, meaning it will not fold together, but the shape will look similar to a folding fan.
Materials
- A paper plate cut in half
- Craft Sticks or Popsicle Sticks
- Markers, colored pencils or crayons
- Glue or Tape
Instructions
COLLECTION CONNECTION
VMFA’s permanent collection has more fans and artworks that have fans in them. Click through to see if you can find the different types discussed in this activity, the folding and fixed fan.
Winter Landscape after Wang Wei with Tao Yuanming's Poem of Returning Home in Semi-Cursive Script (Translation)
The Gazer (Le Lorgneur) (Primary Title)
Samurai Battle Paddle (Translation)
Amen Corner Sisters, Harlem, NY (Primary Title)
Fan (Primary Title)
Her Fan and a Tag (Primary Title)
Images
(Left) Birds on the Pine Tree with a Poem, 1945, Wang Fu’an, Chinese, 1880-1960 (Calligrapher), Dai Hanqing, Chinese, 1890-? (Painter), folding fan; ink and color on paper, bamboo ribs. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment and partial gift of Y.T. Bay Collection. 2013.126.
(Right) Noh Fan with Phoenix Birds, 19th century, Japanese, laquer on bamboo, wood, silk gauze, pigment, gold, silk tassels. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Aldine S. Hartman Endowment Fund, 2019.45